schamanMD

Lee Anna Rasar, Professor of Music Therapy, University of Wisconsin, shares with us her life passion of music therapy. She enlightens us regarding the many facets of how music is used for therapeutic purposes in a wide range of applications and indications. Going back 10 years, she connected with schamanMD at  various conferences exploring the benefits of harmonica exercise and harmonica playing in medical therapeutic settings. Discussions shed light on the challenge of COVID-19, both from the point of you of potentially spreading the virus, or catching it, while using wind instruments and singing. The therapeutic use of harmonicas has a bearing on the potential of prevention of COVID-19, the use of harmonica exercise in those unfortunate enough to become infected, while they are in the throes of the disease, as well as in the rehabilitative phase for those that have recovered from COVID-19. At the end of this podcast you will know more about music therapy than you ever would have thought possible! After all, what could be better than solving a medical problem with a musical solution!

Cliff Barry joins in this schamanMD podcast to relive some memories of 40 years ago. This is the first reunion between Cliff and Dr. John Schaman since 1984. When they celebrated the victory and Olympic gold medal of swimmer Victor Davis in the 200 m breaststroke in Los Angeles. They share some insights into Victor, his personality, his exceptional drive, and his difficulty accepting defeat. The pride, stubbornness and fierce determination that won the gold medal may well have contributed to his death! In 1989, just outside Montreal, after a verbal altercation in a bar, with Victor protecting his girlfriend and her friend, Victor stood defiantly on the roadway while the adversaries gunned the engine of their vehicle, striking Victor with tremendous force, causing mortal injuries! Victor lost his last fight, the one that mattered the most!  Both Cliff and Dr. John share memories of their remarkable experiences and encounters with Victor. As Cliff states, Victor made his career! Dr. John recalls the many postcards he received from the young man, the exceptional "once in a lifetime" swimmer, that many described as "rough around the edges." He states: "At that time, I received more postcards from Victor, from all over the world, than I received from all my other patients combined. I saw no rough edges!" 

Scott Martin is the guest on the schamanMD podcast. Giving insight into his life in Australia, Scott touched on an assorted range of topics, from the efficacy of using facemasks, to government mandated energy conservation, to sun-dried tomatoes. The discussion of COVID-19 dominated the conversation, looking at various angles relating to "why did this happen," to "what did our governments do wrong?" to "freedom of speech: is it always a good thing?" After discussing various possible differences, it was concluded that the countries actions and ultimately the results with COVID-19 we're not dissimilar from the Orient, to Europe, to North America, and to Australia! During the discussion we both made it clear that we were looking forward to travelling again, me to Australia and he to Canada!

Michael H Cox, PhD. reminisces about the early years of exercise physiology, a time when cardiac rehabilitation was not yet on the map! He met J. P. Schaman M.D. in the mid-70s while they both worked in the Human Performance Laboratory at the Toronto Rehabilitation Centre. Heart patients who had suffered recent heart attacks were investigated regarding risks and benefits of exercise. This led to staggering changes from the previously recognized medical treatment. He then moved from the sick to the healthy. He headed the landmark Canada Life Study, where healthy life insurance company employees were presented with an exercise and lifestyle change program while being compared to a control group at another life insurance company. The results showed the benefit of exercise and lifestyle change in improved productivity and reduced absenteeism. Starting with the sick and moving to the healthy, Dr. Cox then turned his attention to studying elite athletes. His performance testing, followed by athletic training, resulted in significant improvement in athletic performance. Elite swimmers and professional hockey players were shown to have improvement in performance, leading to a widespread adoption of these methods across the elite and professional athletic world. 

Harold Lee was a man in his 50s when he suffered a heart attack and was told he only had about a year to live. This is the second part of our discovery into his journey to reverse the blockage in his arteries. The Heart Disease Reversal Program has been scientifically validated since the late 80s, and meets evidence-based criteria, in this day and age when pseudoscience and snake oil is heavily promoted in every corner of cyberspace! It is only too evident that commerce overrules science! Can heart disease be reversed? Yes!  Can you do it? Listen in and decide!

A man in his 50s, Harold Lee, had never expected to have a heart attack, but did! Told he had less than a year to live, he was motivated to survive and looked for options. He found his way to the Cardiac Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine clinic (established in 1978) operated by John P. Schaman M.D. where he found the challenge of very aggressive lifestyle change suited him, as he felt he had no other options. His outcome to date, not that different than many others who had been motivated enough to follow the program with total compliance, has been heartwarming!

Group support and connection among people has been proven to have a health and wellness benefit. This has probably been recognized throughout the millennia. Only more recently has there been scientific data and evidence that quite significant beneficial physical and medical outcomes hinge on support and connection among humans. In this interview Brian Skerrett discusses a number of factors relating to detrimental health outcomes caused and certainly affected by deterioration in support and inter-human connection. Brian has attended the clinic operated by Dr. John Schaman, going back some decades, both as a patient initially, and more recently as a therapist. With his 50 year experience in counseling, group support, and stress management, he shares with the audience important suggestions to improve support and connection, to benefit both individuals, as well as, society as a whole.

This is a slightly abbreviated version of a message I sent out to my patients on April 25, 2020. Many recommended I get this out to a larger audience. Covid-19 has turned our world upside down and inside out and we wonder if our previous world will ever return. This video was to be a way of connecting with my patients, as our weekly cardiac rehab program, our pulmonary rehab program using the medical harmonica, the Harmonica Exercise for Lung Program (H.E.L.P), and especially the ECG monitoring and group support, stopped suddenly in early March. My feelings, after hours and hours of research and contemplation, left me with a feeling of disconnection from what has been presented and is being presented by our government representatives and our media. Not that anything presented was false or grossly incorrect. I just felt a different thrust might be more effective in getting through to a significant segment of our population, who have not bought into and understood the importance of each citizen's actions regarding Covid-19. By providing concise information of what we need to do, and moreso WHY, will hopefully engender a feeling of "belonging" in what needs to be a total group effort in battling the virus. A single citizen's failure in this regard can have dire consequences, not just on this individual, but on our society as a whole, as well as on our economy and our healthcare system! Hence the video: Covid-19: Mitigation VS Suppression, now in podcast audio format. Please spread the message to your family, friends, everyone you know, and everyone you don't know! We were turning the corner, and flattening the curve. Unfortunately the virus is gaining on us again as we attempt to come out of hiding! We can’t get complacent. Still too many deaths and fear of another peak!

In 1978, I set up the first private practice in Canada in the pioneering fields of Cardio-Pulmonary Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine. I feel honoured that more than 56,000 patients have put their trust and confidence in me and my clinic. My patients have included internationally known sports stars, Olympic champions as well as hopefuls, weekend warriors, and many patients hoping to rebound from damaged hearts and lungs. A large part of what I do at the clinic is education of patients and in that regard I have given over 12,000 lectures to my cardiac classes, averaging about one hour each. Over the years many patients have suggested I should videotape my lectures so that these could be passed on to future generations. Being a perfectionist I couldn’t see doing that without a lot of extra trouble, and procrastination and busyness prevented me from getting much of a start. Now, as I get closer to my “best-before date,” I realize I should have tackled this chore decades ago. When I learned about podcasting and the possibility of broadcasting myself, I thought this may well be a good option for getting the information out of my cerebral cortex, the "hard-drive between my ears" and out to those who might benefit from it!  (PS. I apologize as I seem to have posted my audio twice, one followed by the other. This podcast is only six minutes 13 seconds. After that it repeats. Unless you really liked it and want to hear it again, I would recommend stopping at that half-way point 06:13)